This last one is the one specially aged in whiskey barrels for 60 days and called Apothic Inferno. It was supposed to be a small batch and limited release but I have found it readily available over and over, so I guess it had some success and they kept making it every year. Watch out though, it’s 15.9% vol. The one I tasted a couple of weeks ago, early January (thus the Christmas tree in the background) was the vintage 2016 but I have also bought some more recent vintage in the past months. The price of this one was $10 when I bought it a while back here at my local wine store, Stirling Fine Wines in Central New Jersey, but for the recent ones I picked up in the past months, the price has jumped up to $14.
Apothic Inferno California Red Blend 2016
Purple brownish red with a bright red rim and very long legs.
Nose : closed at first, fruit esters, leather, wood, red and black fruits, jam, vanilla, cooked red and black fruits. My son found it smelled like a barrel, which makes sense as it has been aged in whiskey barrels.
In mouth : very smooth, soft, melted, « fondu » meaning that all the flavors are well integrated, a lot of vanilla, red and black fruits, blackcurrant, blackberry, all those fruits are jam-like and cooked. Then the whiskey barrel kicks in. Then a little bit of smoke, honey and whiskey notes. Some mild spices, peppercorn and again tons of vanilla and wood but smooth wood, not harsh nor green.
Cocoa and leather as the after mouth.
A ton of vanilla and red fruits. Excellent but a bit in your face, so beware if you don’t like that kind of wines.
After the tasting, I paired it with a zucchini and ham gratin but it is a good sipping wine too. After our dinner I also paired it with a nice Netflix movie. Really a great sipping wine, it would pair nicely with a cigar too.
Calatayud La Sonriente Garnacha Spanish Red Wine 2017
This is a Spanish red wine, garnacha grape variety, from the Calatayud region in Spain.14.5% vol. Under cork.
This wine is sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s in the US. Depending on the state it might not even be available at all the Trader Joe’s stores depending if they have the license to sell wine and alcohol or not. In New Jersey we have only two that have the license, the one in Princeton which is a bit far away for me and fortunately one in Westfield which is around the corner. The parking there is an issue though, that’s another story.
Back in 2019 I had read about this wine on the Reverse Wine Snob blog and I went for a jaunt at this Westfield Trader Joe’s store to buy it among other wines. This was just $7 which makes it very affordable, specially for an imported wine. It had been in my wine rack since then and last week we had an earthy meal of white rice and black beans of Cuban inspiration, so I figured it could pair well with it.
I tasted it with my son in my Le Deux glasses.
Calatayud La Sonriente Garnacha Spanish Red Wine 2017
Very bright red with purple pink hues and a wide dark pink rim. Irregular long legs.
Nose : red and black fruits, blackberry, blackcurrant and redcurrant, leather, wood and spices. Peppercorn and vanilla then some dark cherries join in the mix.
In mouth : very structured, tannic, we can taste the tannins, woody, vanilla and cooked red fruits.
This is an excellent surprise for this kind of cheap red wine, furthermore from Trader Joe’s.
A lot of structure and tannins in mouth, a slight bitterness, full bodied wine « il a du corps et de la mâche en bouche » as we say in French (some body and something to bite on). Not very fruity in mouth but excellent. A very solid and structured wine.
It paired very nicely with our Moros y Cristianos, Cuban inspired dish, made of white rice and black beans seasoned with cumin. It’s also a great sipping wine, which would pair nicely with a cigar (Cuban of course).
Calatayud La Sonriente Garnacha Spanish Red Wine 2017
Last year I tasted the winter 2020-2021 but never published the review, so I will enclosed it here under too. Tonight we actually went over the 3 « vintages » again, as I had one can left from the original one (winter 2019-2020) that I already reviewed and posted, a couple of cans from last season (2020-2021) that I never published and the current one that we originally tasted for our first snow fall of the season, on Friday the 7th of January.
Untied Brewing Company Winter Ale 2021-2022
Untied Brewing Company Winter Ale 2021-2022 (current version at the time of writing in January 2022). 7.3% vol.
It’s not actually a pure « beer » or ale because in addition to the hop it’s brewed with apple juice, cinnamon nutmeg vanilla orange peel and molasses and brown sugar.
Untied Brewing Company Winter Ale 2021-2022Untied Brewing Company Winter Ale 2021-2022
Brownish red (a rousse as it would be called in France) with thick beige orange foam.
Nose : yeasts, beer, orange peel.
Mouth : sweet and bitter, caramel (bitter cameral) and orange peel. Bitter caramel as a finale. Very good and well suited for a snow day. It’s actually better than last year’s iteration (see under). That was our conclusion with my son tonight : the best was the 2019-2020 (their first) version with notes of cherry and chocolate, then this one. We were not fans of last year’s version which was too sweet and too cider like for our taste.
Untied Brewing Company Winter Ales 3 vintages
Tonight as we were tasting all 3 versions at once, we paired them with a sweet potato and leek gratin made with sour cream, heavy cream and mustard plus shredded cheese, which they paired nicely with.
Untied Brewing Company Winter Ale 2020-2021
Untied Brewing Company Winter Ale 2020-2021 (last year’s version)
7.3% vol.
This one is really not a beer but what they call a graff (Ale/Cider hybrid) and « inspired by the mulled cider drinks » according to their website’s blurb at the time. In addition to the same hop, apple juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, orange peel, molasses and brown sugar, it’s actually conditioned on Chardonnay grape must (this year 2022 they didn’t do the Chardonnay grape must, which is very fine with me).
Deep brown with medium beige foam. They call it dark amber ale actually. It is darker than the 2022 one.
Nose : apple, mulled wine, spices like the ones in the French hot wine, vin chaud, or hot cider for the winter season. Bitter caramel, a hint of vanilla.
Mouth : it really feels like a mix of cider and beer. Not too much our taste. We way prefer the previous year (2019-20) and this current one (2021-22) which are both more ales per se and not a mix of cider and beer. I am not a big fan of spices neither (in beers).
It’s also very sparkly. It really feels like someone has mixed in equal parts some lager with some French style cider, cidre, then threw in some spices, which is somehow the case. Light cinnamon and chestnut puree as an after taste which is quite pleasant.
The way we could appreciate it is with the Chandeleur French crepes on the 2nd of February, as we did last year.
Now here is the main wine from Miraval, the higher Côtes de Provence appellation.
Côtes de Provence Rosé, vintage 2020. 13% vol. Under cork. $18 at my local wine store, Stirling Fine Wines in New Jersey. The price is way above what I would usually spend on a rosé wine but I had read so many good things about it on other wine blogs that I wanted to try it for myself.
I tasted it in my Le Deux wine glass.
Miraval Côtes de Provence Rosé 2020
Very pale pink leaning towards yellow, almost looking like a deep white wine. We could also call it a gris. Translucent rim, no legs.
Nose : citrus, pomelo, wild strawberries (fraises des bois), with this very characteristic and unmistakable note of the fraise des bois, on the green side of this wild strawberry note.
In mouth : citrus, green fraise des bois (wild strawberry) mainly. The wild strawberry is really the main note and cannot be missed. A slight bitterness in the after mouth.
This is an excellent wine, even better than the other, the Studio by Miraval, which makes sense because it’s an appellation that’s a big notch above. That’s my son’s favorite of the two and mine too. He loved it a lot.
After tasting we paired with a favorite recipe of ours, penne pasta (Barilla) served with spinach, garlic, mushrooms in a cream sauce seasoned with (smoked) paprika and black pepper and served with oeufs mollets (soft boiled eggs). Both the pasta and the wine were a pure delight.
California, 100% sauvignon blanc, 13% vol. Screw cap, vintage 2019. Mason cellars, Napa, California. I tasted it in my Le Deux wine glasses. $10 here in Stirling, New Jersey.
Very pale yellow leaning towards grey. Very irregular and super short legs.
Nose : citrus, mainly lemon, green apple. The main note is lemon, a hint of honey in the background.
In mouth : not green at all, very smooth but not sweet nor sugary at all, just smooth. The main note is also lemon, I cannot taste the green apple I had in the nose. Very lemony, crisp and refreshing. This white Sauvignon Blanc wine is not mineral at all : mainly lemony with a slight bitterness that keeps it refreshing. A little fizzy at first also, the fizziness vanishes after a while in the glass.
Pomelo notes in the after mouth with a slight bitterness that reminds of pomelo too.
Pomelo Wine Co. Sauvignon Blanc California 2019
My son liked it too. We paired it with some roasted bok choy, sautéed in the pan with garlic, pepper and a splash of lemon juice served with plain Chinese noodles seasoned with ponzu sauce. It paired remarkably well with that dish due to both their lemony nature (the wine and the seasoning of the bok choy).
French island La ReunionFrench island La Reunion off Madagascar
Today I am doing something slightly different : I am publishing a review of a craft beer from the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean (east of Madagascar.) This tropical island is famous for its breathtaking landscapes : imposing mountains and active volcanoes. Famous also for its high end gourmet rums.
My older son is currently working there for a couple of months (he arrived there just before Christmas) and during a short break between two meetings he went to pay a visit to this craft brewery nearby, Les 3 Brasseurs. He just had the time to try one then he was off, back to work. He nevertheless took the time to record quickly his tasting notes and take a couple of pictures that he sent me for my blog. I had originally asked him to taste the famous Réunion rums for me (which he is wanting to do) but he hadn’t had the time yet. Then he stumbled upon this brewery and sent his tasting notes for one of their beer in the meantime.
Les 3 Brasseurs La Réunion, France
This is a restaurant and craft micro-brewery, apparently they have 3 restaurants / breweries Les 3 Brasseurs in the island. My son visited the one in Sainte Marie, in the north of the island.
On to the beers they brew. To begin with some background information : France is the only country to categorize beers by color and not according to their style, as they do in the rest of the world (they are slowly changing, specially with the rise of the IPA style). So the beer menu from this brewery is of course in the French fashion of colors and not of style of brew.
Thus they offer white, « blonde » , amber, red (rousse) and dark beer (brune or brown) and one IPA too. In France those IPAs are not as known and popular yet as they are in the rest of the world and specially in the USA, due to this color classification — which means nothing : you don’t know what style your are getting. Usually a blonde is a pale lager / pils type but it could also be a pale ale or something else. A white beer is not necessarily a white « wheat » beer — not so long ago an IPA could have been categorized as blonde or white. Fortunately due to the rise of the IPA style, it has kept its category in France. A dark beer can be a porter or a stout or something else. I way prefer the classification using the style according to the brewing and type of fermentation, cereals and hops used because you know what to expect and it corresponds to the main tasting notes of the beer, the bitterness or the sweetness, the alcohol content and the texture (soft, creamy etc). .
Les 3 Brasseurs Amber craft beer La Réunion, France
My son tasted the amber one called « Ambrée » and we don’t know which style it is actually. I checked the website and they don’t give any details of the style / fermentation / cereal / hop like my local brewery does (and all the breweries around the world for that matter, except most of the French ones).
So here we go according to my son’s tasting notes for Bière Ambrée Les 3 Brasseurs. IBU 26, 6.2% vol.
Color : dark amber to pale brownish/ caramel color with medium dense yellow foam.
Soft on the tongue, barely no bitterness at first, then some bitterness in the after mouth.
My son enjoyed it a lot, though with the heat and his recent arrival and the fact of not being adjusted to heat and humidity yet, he felt rather drunk (ish) after his pint. The French serving size of the beer pint, pinte, is 25 cl, which in freedom units is roughly a cup. He was not driving fortunately. I think it’s more the heat and a tropical climate adjustment problem than the actual alcohol content. After a couple of weeks he will be used to the heat / humidity and able to have a beer without feeling lightheaded.
Les 3 Brasseurs Amber craft beer La Réunion, France
While I was checking the beer menu on the brewery website, I noticed that this one is actually the one with the most alcohol content, the least are the dark, the white and the red ones, and the IPA is not the highest — like I mentioned, with the color categorization one cannot know what to expect.
Les 3 Brasseurs beer menu La Réunion, France
He will go again to this brewery and try some of the other beers and send me his notes hopefully. I also hope he will get to explore the island’s other craft breweries, and the rhumeries (rum distilleries) of course.
As with all these micro breweries around the world, I doubt that their beers can be found outside the island of La Réunion, but that’s just for the fun to discover new beverages and to support local and craft artisans and an excuse to explore some regions just to find them.
Wine in America 